Archive for the ‘ISR’ Category

WASHINGTON — A misconception of U.S. Army Cyber Command’s mission is that it’s only about defensive and offensive cyber, said Lt. Gen. Stephen G. Fogarty. But equally important, he said, are other “tribal members” of ARCYBER — signals intelligence, electronic warfare and information operations.

Fogarty, commander of ARCYBER, spoke Thursday during an Association of the U.S. Army-sponsored forum on cyber warfare.

PFC Nathaniel Ortiz of the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade sets up deployable cyber tools overlooking the mock city of Razish at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., May 5, 2017. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Bill Roche)

ARCYBER needs to provide the combatant commander with an entire array of options from each of those communities that will provide him or her freedom of movement on the battlefield and deny the same to adversaries, Fogarty said. “We want to present multiple dilemmas to the enemy, not just cyber.”

Fogarty added that next week he’ll convene a meeting with leaders in ARCYBER to discuss the roles each of them play and how they can more effectively be utilized in the future, such as by better synchronizing their efforts.

U.S. Army Cyber Command is a relatively new organization, stood up just eight years ago, he said. Over the course of that time, particularly within the last two years, ARCYBER has been able to assess what it has gotten wrong and right so far.

ARCYBER operators “are in the fight every day,” he explained, and in the last two years that fight has heated up as peer adversaries acquire new technologies and capabilities and test those of the U.S. and its allies.

That high-intensity fight has enabled ARCYBER to accelerate its learning and evolve much more quickly than ever before, he said. The backbone of that effort has been the excellent ARCYBER workforce.

Lt. Gen. Bruce T. Crawford, Army chief information officer/G-6, said he wants to ensure that the ARCYBER workforce of 13,600 individuals has the right skills and training to meet the higher demands that will be placed on them as they defend the U.S. network and work to disrupt the network of the enemy.

NETWORK MODERNIZATION

Today’s effort to modernize the network is the largest in 35 years, Crawford said. In the early 1980s, he said, the Army was just getting a grasp of how software and the Internet would fundamentally change the character of warfare. The Army’s network modernization effort now is being led by two cross functional teams: the Assured Position, Navigation and Timing team and the Network team.

Advances in information technology, particularly within the last two years, mean that the Army must get a grasp on how this new technology can shape the modern battlefield and how to best take advantage of that by working closely with partners in industry and academia, he said.

Crawford said that if he had to pick the top three IT developments that will shape the nature of war, they are cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and identity, credential and access management.

Peer adversaries, he said, are working hard on developing these three as well, and some have even suggested that whoever reaches a breakthrough in AI first will obtain world dominance.

Mogadishu, Somalia, July 2011 – Somalia was in the midst of an ongoing civil war and a severe famine, brought about by a drought and a lack of governance. The famine ultimately kills over two hundred thousand civilians. The capital city, Mogadishu, was largely controlled by the UN-recognized Transitional Federal Government, supported by African Union troops. The Islamic extremist insurgent group, Al-Shabab controlled pockets of the city, and tribal in-fighting continued. While the city itself, the airport, and nearby port, were mostly controlled by the TFG, Al-Shabab, controlled the surrounding countryside. Fighting was ongoing, despite the humanitarian crisis killing thousands. We were tasked with evaluating if, and how, civilian aid organizations could respond to the humanitarian crisis and deliver desperately needed food, water, and medicine.

While this was not my first experience with overseas travel, conflicts, humanitarian work, and civ-mil partnerships, this was my first time totally unsupported in a place where the nearest decent hospital was the next country over, there was no infrastructure, such as phones or electricity, and we were completely surrounded by the enemy. There was no QRF, no support, no logistics, and no security beyond what the local TFG could provide. We needed to bring everything required to sustain ourselves and collect the information needed. I knew there wouldn’t be a Best Buy or even a tourist camera store in-country. And we had to keep it all under 20kg (UN flight weight restrictions), go through commercial security and customs in various airports, and be easily carried (didn’t expect luggage trolleys, turns out there weren’t any).

The plan was for a three week trip, basing out of Nairobi, Kenya while sorting transit in and out of Mogadishu, which was still sketchy. For some reason neither Orbitz nor Expedia had flights or good hotel recommendations for Mogadishu. We expected at least two weeks in Somalia. So pack two weeks of clothes, toiletries, food, water, coffee, power, comms, technical data collections gear, etc. 20kg. Cool. No problem. Right? The working model in my head was, sustainment gear stowed at the safe house and essential mission and “Oh Shit” gear carried with me in a backpack. Recharge batteries at night, do processing and uploading then, etc. What is it they say about plans of mice and men? Fortunately, I wasn’t wholly unprepared or completely wrong in my planning, but a lot of frustrating shortcomings were discovered. So now I’ll highlight the Lessons Learned that drove me to develop the Observer Kit:

1) Power, Power, Power. Looking back, my “conservative” guess about worst-case availability of infrastructure turned out to be a bit optimistic. The nature of the physical threat, the security precautions demanded, as well as the ops tempo also threw my preparations a curve ball. Working overseas is not the same as camping or hiking. Solar is great. Particularly when there is little-to-no power infrastructure. But when you are working, you are on-the-go, constantly getting in and out of vehicles, and not always the same ones. The safe house we were staying in was great. They even occasionally ran a generator for a few hours a night to give us a little power. How many outlets do you think are going to be free and how soon till a surge breaker trips? Just imagine how many others are struggling with their power budget.

2) Backpacks suck. Being constantly on the move, in and out of vehicles, walking through crowded areas, and needing quick access to your gear make the backpack form factor far less than ideal. Again, working overseas is not the same as camping. In uniform you have a plate carrier or vest rig and probably a belt where constant use items can be grabbed quickly and easily. The camera, voice recorder, or GPS sitting in your backpack, does you no good in a vehicle or on the move. You have no visibility or control over the pack on your back in a crowded market or street. And few backpacks have things like pockets for satellite antennas that need constant view of the sky. Which brings me to my next point:

Communications are critical. Mogadishu is one of the more extreme environments but disasters, conflicts, or mass scale events can also make communications difficult. We had a single (!) satellite phone for emergency use and expected to have access to some other communications networks. We needed to connect with people who sometimes had no local phone or SIM card at all. Most carriers blocked international calls. Keeping track of the different carriers required to talk to different people and the multiple phones was another complication. And my wife was Not Happy with me going dark for long stretches. If the team got separated, who had the sat phone? Over the years there have been other Lessons Learned in this category but these got me started.

4) Semper Gumby. You’d be amazed at the Opportunities To Excel found in these environments. Being able to solve, hack, or improvise around problems that wouldn’t exist back home can have a dramatic impact on effectiveness. Things like copying and moving data that would normally be as simple as emailing someone a spreadsheet or photocopying some pages can be serious obstacles to operations. Fixing (or sometimes breaking) things in a pinch, is needed more often than you’d suspect. The Marine credo “Forever Flexible” or “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome” should be taken to heart.

5) Hygiene helps. Hygiene and comfort are more difficult than you expect, but are worth tackling if you can keep it fast, light, and compact. Keeping you effective so that you can accomplish your goals is worth some effort. Time is often more scarce than running water, however.

Conclusion. At that time we were purely a consulting company with no interest in manufacturing or selling gear. The week I returned I started looking everywhere on the market for solutions and improvements. Nothing quite fit the requirements. So I reached out to a friend who runs Zulu Nylon Gear to make a custom sling bag for us and proceeded to hack, tweak, and customize the kit around this new wearable platform. Over the years it’s been refined and refactored countless times. Experiences in diverse climates like the Philippines and Iraq drove comfort tweaks. Constant heavy use and new offerings on the market improved capabilities and features. I’m proud of what’s been built and have had a lot of requests from other users in the field to purchase our kits. So now we are offering them to the general market. Everything we sell is gear that we rely on and use in the field ourselves. Take a look at our SSR Kits and our Observer System or ping us for other custom solutions.

In mid-May Chief Of Staff of the Air Force, Gen Dave Goldfein awarded four officers the new Information Operations occupational badge. Although it’s hard to see in this photo, it features a Trojan Horse, long associated with deception in war. In fact, the practitioners of this field, also have a new Air Force Specifically Code, 14F to go along with the badge. In the past, these functions were performed generally by Intelligence Officers (AFSC 14N), unrated Staff Officers (16G), and Behavioral Scientists (61B) based on ad-hoc training for duty positions.

This is an officer AFSC which uses information-related capabilities to influence, disrupt, corrupt or usurp the decision making of selected audiences to create desired effects.

Currently, part of their qualification includes attending Military Information Support Operations aka PSYOPS training with the Army at Ft Bragg, as well as Courses in Tactical Deception and Operations Security.

However, the Air Force is standing up a new schoolhouse at Hurlburt Field, Florida, which is coincidentally the headquarters of the Air Force Special Operations Command. A new 15-week course will come online in 2019 and focus specifically on the Air Force application of IO.

The careerfield itself remains small, but there are multiple IO Squadrons within the Air Force which conduct a wide variety of intelligence functions. This is sure to lead to confusion about the specialized focus of the 14F AFSC.

SOFWERX, in Tampa, FL, will host a dual track SOFCON Working Group with the theme of SOF Cyber Electro-Magnetic Activities (CEMA). The Project Track will provide an environment for SOF related technology exploration and innovative technology use based on direct interaction and feedback with Warfighters at the event. The Speaker Track will give Warfighters the opportunity to view presentations from expert speakers and select exhibitors.

Objective

Project Track

• Allow SOF operators and engineers/hackers/makers to experiment with non-standard commercial technologies in order to develop use case concepts and build a common repository of instruction sets.
• Technical training on CEMA related topics.
• Advanced capability exploration with representatives from SANS Institute. (Check back often for details as the schedule becomes finalized.)

With the Army moving EW branch personnel into Cyber branch, and the creation of Cyber Electro Magnetic Activities teams, it’s almost as if they’re putting the band back together. The one they disbanded just after the turn of the century.

MCLEAN, Va. — An adversary is spotted positioning fighters along the border of an ally nation. As U.S. Army forces are quickly deployed, one unit is under special instructions: detect and survey the adversary’s electronic warfare jammers and emitters.

As vital as this information is for the commander’s situational awareness, a few months ago mapping out the electromagnetic spectrum would have been much more difficult.

While only a simulated experiment, the realism of this scenario reflects how the Electronic Warfare Officers of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment must operate to ensure freedom of maneuver for ground forces. To help them do this, the Army recently rolled out its initial set of EW capabilities for brigade and below, giving Soldiers at the lowest echelons operating in a contested environment the ability to detect, identify and locate targets within the electromagnetic spectrum.

Now, just a few months after the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and other Europe-based units received the integrated package of mounted, dismounted, and command and control EW capabilities, a small group of EWOs traveled to the U.S. to see the next phase of upgrades, participate in simulated scenarios based on potential real-world missions, and provide feedback on how they would fight with the new systems. The simulation experiment, or SIMEX, helps the Army evaluate the operational value of the capabilities by determining whether the operators can accomplish the mission under the scenario-based exercise.

“Prior to this fielding, there was no equipment in the Army inventory to do what we’re doing today,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Michael Flory, an Electronic Warfare Technician for 2nd Cavalry Regiment. “The EW community was organized around that counterinsurgency fight, and you were essentially a staff advisor for other capabilities. Now we are capable of offering the commander not just information, but decisions for him to make and assets he can deploy and control himself.”

Delivered in response to an Operational Needs Statement from U.S. Army Europe, the technologies are interim solutions designed as a bridge to enduring EW programs of record that are still in development. The Army Rapid Capabilities Office and the Project Manager for Electronic Warfare & Cyber teamed with 2nd Cavalry Regiment and other receiving units on a rapid prototyping approach to shape system design, performance, functionality and training to meet operational needs in the near- and mid-term.

“This is the short-term [solution] until something more long-term comes along,” Flory said. “So it really helps to bridge that gap. It helps the commander see the electromagnetic spectrum that he’s responsible for fighting in.”

The 2nd Cavalry Regiment EWOs came from Europe to take part in a two week-long SIMEX, designed to help improve operational understanding and effectiveness of the EW prototypes. The event played out in a MITRE lab in McLean, Virginia, which accommodates over 50 personnel representing the operational roles of “blue” or friendly forces, and “red” or enemy forces. The SIMEX lab provides the appropriate computer infrastructure to conduct simulation experiments with real military Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, or C4ISR, systems.

This experiment allowed the 2nd Cavalry Regiment EWOs to use their newly fielded capabilities in various operationally relevant scenarios in order to identify best tactics, techniques and procedures. The event brought together in one room the Soldiers who use the capabilities, the engineers who are designing them, the project manager responsible for fielding the program of record solution, and the RCO team delivering the interim prototypes.

“Development works out a lot better when you have direct user feedback,” said Capt. Kevin Voss, assistant product manager for Electronic Warfare Integration. “With the SIMEX, we can modify and tweak through constant feedback and constant interaction with the operators. We can map out what they need, based on how they use it in the field.”

One scenario required the EWOs to detect communications between enemy forces’ headquarters and insurgents, then send an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to confirm. Other scenarios involved detecting enemy jammers, networks and UAV communications; determining if a report that their network is being jammed is real or false; and intercepting, detecting, identifying and locating the source of interference that is affecting their communications.

By the end of the SIMEX, which concluded May 4, the Soldiers were becoming experts at utilizing their new kit of capabilities in order to command the electromagnetic spectrum.

“The SIMEX is not focused on the individual system,” said Nickee Abbott, who was one of the lead RCO engineers on the prototypes. “Instead, it’s about integration and operational understanding. It’s looking at the package of capabilities and how the Soldiers leverage that under realistic threat scenarios.”

With the engineers and operators working side by side, some of the suggested changes were made over lunch or by the next morning.

“This is a great way to give feedback,” said Staff Sergeant Justin Dugan, EW Non-Commissioned Officer for 2nd Cavalry Regiment. “It’s an opportunity to spend concentrated hours on the equipment in a simulated environment with the engineers that are developing it, [so we are] able to turn to the engineers or PM and say, ‘Why does it do that instead of this, or could it do this?’ And it’s incredible to see that information go straight from the operators’ thought process into the engineers’ thought process, and [they] immediately start working on it. ”

“Sometimes there is a disconnect [between] the engineer level and the user at the tactical level,” he said. “We’re trying to help illustrate where we live and fight, versus where they come to work. It’s showing them what is most valuable to us, and they’ve been incredibly receptive.”

The Soldiers also evaluated some new capabilities their fielded prototypes currently don’t have, in order to inform whether future iterations of the EW prototypes or programs of record should include added features, such as a sensor that provides a potentially wider and clearer image of the electromagnetic environment, and improved signal identification. Some software updates to the fielded systems are already on track to be delivered this summer, with additional “Phase 2” upgrades to the prototypes expected throughout 2018 and 2019.

Munich/Berlin, 25 April 2018 – HENSOLDT, the leading German sensor solutions provider, is presenting its passive radar system called “TwInvis” to the public for the first time in live operation during this year’s International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin. The new product name “TwInvis” is made up from “twin” + “invisible”, as neither TwInvis itself nor the targets to be detected emit any signals on their own, which means that they are “invisible”. The TwInvis system, which can be integrated into an all-terrain vehicle or a van, does not emit its own signals to monitor air traffic, but simply “passively” analyses the echoes of signals from radio or TV stations.

“Our newly developed, highly sensitive digital receivers now make it possible for a single TwInvis system to monitor up to 200 aircraft in 3D within a radius of 250 kilometres. This was unthinkable even just a few years ago,” said HENSOLDT CEO Thomas Müller. “This will open up completely new options for application in such fields as air defence, the protection of large events or air traffic control.”

Working as mere receivers, passive radar systems detect aircraft by analysing the signals that they reflect from existing third-party emissions. HENSOLDT’s TwInvis system excels with a very precise picture of the airspace covered, which is obtained by simultaneously analysing a large number of frequency bands. For example, up to 16 FM transmitters (analogue radio) plus 5 frequencies used by several DAB and DAB+ transmitters (digital radio) as well as DVB-T and DVB-T2 (digital, terrestrial television) can be simultaneously analysed for the first time. Furthermore, HENSOLDT’s new generation of software will provide unprecedented performance in terms of range and precision of detection.

In civil applications, passive radar systems make cost-effective air traffic control possible without any additional emissions and without using transmission frequencies, which are in short supply. In military applications, the system enables wide-area surveillance using networked receivers, while offering the advantage that passive radar systems cannot be located by the enemy and are very hard to jam. Moreover, no agreement is required with any other public authority, as there is no radiation, which allows the system to be quickly ready for deployment in new locations and to also be used in urban areas. This results in another advantage of the new technology: the system can be used in places where coverage was previously inadequate, in particular for example, in mountainous regions.

TwInvis has already shown what it can do in several demonstrations to military customers, air traffic control organisations and other interested parties. Two TwInvis demonstrators have already been delivered to potential customers in Europe.

The Mk 2 GEN-5-D1/D2 sUAS is InstantEye Robotics’ entry for the US Army Soldier Borne Sensor program.

It offers a fully encrypted digital signal for command (GPS or manual) as well as real-time video. The EO/IR sensors are internally gimbaled. The aircraft weighs just 8.8 oz and will fly for about 15 min per sortie. Its service ceiling is 12,000 MSL with a max Speed of 20 mph and will hold station in winds up to 20 MPH. Max video Range is 1km (LOS).

WASHINGTON–On Wednesday, March 21, leaders of the U.S. House and Senate will present a Congressional Gold Medal in honor of the members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) for their historic contributions during World War II.

The OSS, America’s first strategic intelligence system implemented during World War II, is widely considered the foundation of modern day intelligence operations. Founded by General William J. Donovan, a medal of honor recipient, the OSS “organized, trained, supplied, and fought” in the war throughout Europe and Asia and played a decisive role in America’s victory over axis forces. In addition to the civilian population, each military branch contributed personnel to OSS, whose missions resulted in some of the bravest acts of the war and forever changed the course of history.

The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian honor the United States can bestow. In accordance with Public Law 114–269, a single gold medal has been struck to collectively honor the members of the OSS.

The ceremony will take place on Wednesday, March 21 at 3:00 p.m. ET in Emancipation Hall and will be live-streamed on speaker.gov/live. For more on the history of the Congressional Gold Medal, watch this behind-the-scenes video. For press guidance, media should contact their respective congressional media gallery.